Researchers at OSU were awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award from the National Science Foundation to acquire a Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS). The acquisition of the PPMS will cost about $830,000, of which NSF contributes 80% and OSU the rest. The PPMS will allow the characterization of new materials being investigated for potential applications in food science, biomaterials, and electronic devices, which are essential to advancing national health, prosperity, and welfare. It will perform measurements of electromagnetic and thermal properties as a function of temperature (with a range of 50 millikelvins to 400 K) and under magnetic fields as high as 9 Teslas. The measurements include DC resistivity, magnetometry, AC susceptibility, magnetization, heat capacity, and thermal transport.
The PPMS is a powerful research tool capable of providing the high-quality data needed to explore new classes of materials. This state-of-the-art PPMS will be used for research into a broad range of scientific challenges, including detection of hot electron injection across metal-semiconductor interfaces, thermal property measurement of biomaterials, transport at the surface of pyroelectric materials, the impact of radiation on the electronic properties of materials for the Large Hadron Collider, radiation-hard electronics, and electronic properties of superconductive oxides and topological materials. Other research areas impacted include magnetic measurements of materials hosting skyrmions, gluten composites' thermal properties, and nanomaterials' characterization. To promote research and teaching and maximize multi-user access, the PPMS will have a high level of exposure and be available at a low cost to all OSU researchers and researchers across Oklahoma.
The proposal was a joint effort between Physics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biosystems Engineering, and Chemistry. Professors Borunda, Meyers, and Yost from the Physics Department, along with Professors Rayas-Duarte (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and Sachan (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), are the PIs on the proposal.